How to Avoid Router Tearout

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Five easy techniques for taming router tearout

Routers make joinery and edge profiling super-easy, but that convenience can come at a price if you don’t know how to handle this tool properly. Router tearout can easily turn a beautiful board into a scarred nightmare if you don’t follow best practices.

Tearout generally occurs in two situations. The first happens when routing end grain; as the workpiece approaches the end of the cut, the bit will tend to chip out as your workpiece clears the bit. Another common situation is on edge grain, when you’re routing against the grain.

Learn how to tackle these situations with ease as furniture maker Greg Paolini demonstrates five easy methods to avoid router tearout and come away with cleaner cuts.

What is that router?

If you’re wondering what kind of a router a professional woodworker chooses, that’s a Festool that Greg’s using. Festool make top quality, high-end routers that are a cut above other brands. They’re expensive but if you do a lot of routing the quality of construction and engineering that goes into them, plus the range of well thought out innovative features makes them worth every penny. One of the best is the Festool 574354 EB Router